Today's travelers are increasingly sophisticated, seeking personalized and flexible experiences for greater satisfaction. ICE Holidays, a leading business-to-business (B2B) travel wholesaler in Malaysia, has launched GStay Hotel & Tour portal to attract a more diverse customer segment and adapt to industry trends, ultimately driving growth and loyalty with greater revenue opportunities through up-selling and cross-selling

Powered by Trip Affiliates Network (TA Network), ICE Holidays is able to quickly adopt technology to jump start its global connectivity with suppliers and customers, foster stronger online collaborations with its travel operators, using an efficient inventory and booking management platform that enhances customer satisfaction and engagement with bespoke itinerary customization capabilities

The technology collaboration provides ICE Holidays access to TA Network’s multi-faceted digital solutions including:

1. TA Network Hotel Switch Integration: 

GStay is integrated with TA Network’s Hotel Switch, a powerful plug-in that simplifies connectivity and contracting with leading hotels and provides a readily mapped platform for real-time communication and transactions between hotels and global travel buyers, including OTAs and wholesalers. Through this connection, GStay can also broaden their market by directly reaching more hotels seamlessly online. This results in faster and more streamlined collaborations with hotel partners globally

2. TA Network Hotel Private Network (HPN):

TA Network’s HPN is an integrated solution that empowers GStay with seamless connectivity and digital payments with more than 200k hotels globally. The HPN offers a value-added Channel Manager Hub solution to GStay to connect to multiple channel managers and access global distribution platforms without heavy investment costs to implement multiple integrations. GStay can scale their connectivity based on demand, accessing real-time rates and inventories that cater to the evolving needs of their business

3. Efficient B2B Bookings for ICE Holidays:

Travel partners of ICE Holidays can access up-to-date, dynamic room rates and real-time inventory, ensuring that bookings are accurate and align with current availability via TA Network’s solutions. This reduces manual updates and the risk of errors in the booking process. With the integration of TA Network’s solutions, ICE Holidays ensures a streamlined product management & booking process with their travel partners and can offer fast and reliable bookings, minimizing the time needed to onboard new suppliers and partners.  ICE Holidays can also extend their reach to a broader client base, improving access to global buyers and allowing travel partners to explore new opportunities

Along with launching GStay hotel and tour portal, ICE Holidays can make use of TA Network’s portal or turnkey connectivity solutions to seamlessly collaborate online with their preferred suppliers and partners, in addition to top travel wholesalers, operators, and destination management organizations in Asia Pacific into an open travel ecosystem. ICE Holidays will also be able to expand their client portfolio with the number of travel affiliated properties in TA Network's broad ecosystem that utilize its high-performance travel technology platform to handle every facet of day-to-day operations, such as handling cross-border payments using TA Network's virtual credit card solutions and booking engines

In a statement made by Mita Lim Swee Kok, Managing Director of ICE Holidays: “We have watched TA Network grow in technical competence and sophistication over the years, providing impactful and cost effective FIT and packaging solutions for us to leverage on our strong franchise and branding to expand our travel business. Our partnership with TA Network fits in with our goals to continually expand innovation, support, and travel partnerships throughout the Asia Pacific area. This marks a significant milestone in our journey to expand our product offering together with our trusted overseas travel operators under one platform as well as broaden our customer reach globally, while keeping operations efficient and productive.”

Added Sunny Ong, General Manager of ICE Holidays, “GStay hotel and tour portal is an exciting and important initiative by ICE Holidays to provide our travel partners with seamless booking experience and access to competitive rates for a broad range of accommodation, activities, tours and packages globally, all through a single platform which is also equipped with innovative and dynamic packaging and quotation tools. We will be working closely with our local inbound partners globally to feature their unique products on our platform as we promote it to our travel partners and help them attract more travelers seeking personalized experiences. TA Network has been going above and beyond in providing technical knowledge and experience to ICE Holidays, for which we are truly grateful.”

“We are thrilled to support ICE Holidays in launching GStay, a robust white label portal tailored to meet the needs of their travel partners. By integrating our advanced technology and extensive distribution network, we are confident that GStay will drive significant growth and operational efficiency for ICE Holidays and their partners”, in a statement from the managing partner of TA Network, Josef Foo. " The launch of GStay represents a forward-thinking approach to travel technology and hospitality management. It highlights the evolving landscape of B2B hotel distribution and the importance of collaborative efforts in achieving new heights of customer satisfaction and business success. This alliance is poised to set new benchmarks for the industry, demonstrating the power of strategic partnerships in enhancing both visibility and operational efficiency in the competitive travel market.”